Sweet as Honey

 Now that I’ve got my big, all-consuming project out of the way, it’s time to focus on some of the smaller things I’ve been meaning to get around to. I’ve already spent a good month or so getting through some of the half-finished knitting and crochet pieces lying around, and now I’m ready for something new.

One of my goals this year is to end with less yarn than I started with. I was going to resolve not to buy any more yarn but… come on, I need to be a little realistic! I rummaged around my stash for inspiration and came upon most of a cone of yellow alpaca silk lace, leftover from my big special occasion shawl. I wasn’t really feeling another lace-weight project, but held double it acted like a fingering. After weighing it and doing some math, I figured I’d have just about enough for a sleeveless top. Perfect! Now to find a pattern.

The color reminds me so much of honey, so I knew I wanted a honeycomb-inspired design. I went searching for just that… and it came up blank. There are certainly patterns with a honeycomb texture, but they’re all sleeved sweater and baby clothes, not the tank top I wanted. I briefly debated trying to reconfigure one of the existing patterns, but it became obvious that it would be a lot of work. Like, I-might-as-well-just-make-my-own-pattern amount of work.

Wait.

Wait.

That’s exactly what I should do!

A sleeveless top is basically a cylinder with some holes in it, right? A tube plus shoulder straps. I could do that. I made a sketch.

(Should I apologize for the creepy mannequin face? I didn’t feel like drawing actual features.)

Yeah, something like that would work. It did need a bit of math to get the dimensions right, though. I got out my tape measure and measured some key points on my torso, including both circumferences and the vertical length between each (nothing worse than becoming the unwilling owner of a crop-top!). I added a few inches to each circumference to get a slightly relaxed fit, and so I could fudge the hip and bust measurements to equal each other (it just makes the math easier).

To go from inches to stitches and rows, I needed a gauge swatch. I was really, really careful with the gauge swatch on this one. I measured down to an eighth of an inch. And then I measured again in centimeters. I didn’t get a second ruler out, but maybe I should have, for reproducibility’s sake?

Where was I? Oh yeah, math. Big thanks to my high school chemistry teacher for making me do a million unit conversion problems. I don’t think you intended me to use it for knitting, but I’m not exactly converting grams to moles in my day-to-day work either, so. I’m repurposing this skill.

After a bit of though and consultation with knitting friends, I decided to make this top in two pieces: front and back. I could knit in the round, but honestly my circular needles aren’t the best quality, and adding seams would strengthen the garment overall. The only downside is that I won’t be able to try it on for fit until it’s nearly done. Here’s hoping my math holds!

With all those logistics out of the way, I’m just now starting to cast on. Most of the body is plain stockinette and pretty boring (why do I keep doing this to myself?), so I’ll check in with you all once I get to the interesting textured bits at the top. Until then, stay crafty!